AutoGK - experiences and problems of ripping a larger movie collection

[vchrizz]

hi

im now using autogk since some weeks to encode my fathers rather large vhs/dvd collection of about ~400-500 dvds and more vhs to his Archos A605 with extra external hdd. he rips his vhs to dvd with his gpx dvr 9488c dvd-recorder (what seems to be an refurbished LG) so i can copy and encode them too with autogk.
i really have to say that autogk performs great! actually ive got 402movies encoded to 274gb.

but there are some (maybe minor) problems you come across when creating a large movie collection of xvids what all should look the same like...
audio tracks: german + english(if available); subtitles: english + german
output size (predefined): 700mb, videocodec: xvid, audiocodec: mp3 vbr 112~128kbps

ill explain my experinces and problems, maybe someone has a solution or can explain why these errors occur

1. from his dvd collection ive got about 10 where i have strange problems to copy them with dvd decrypter or dvdfab. yes, i tried also ripit4me and dvdshrink. i use four different dvd drives, one of them is a nec ND-3540A with Riplock+RPC1 patched firmware. i dont know much about copying so ask me for details i should provide... partially they end up loading forever in explorer when inserted so it doesnt make sense to open up any dvd-copy app cause i cant do anything else than take them out again. i dont know how to get these on harddisk to encode with autogk...

2. there are also some movies split on two dvds like "Dances with Wolves - 1990" or "Mutiny on the Bounty - 1962".
i have to copy and encode each dvd to join them together by hand and then reencode with autogk. but this reencode process ends in a wrong (larger; about 20-100mb more) predefined output size...

3. predefined output size works in 99% of all cases and i dont understand why it creates from "African Queen - 1951" a 703mb file, from "Just Visiting - 2001" a 713mb file, from "Open Water I - 2003" a 725mb file.
i copied the dvd in different ways and encoded even with mp3 vbr 96kbps but output is even larger than before.

4. there is this strange "A field order transition was detected. You may need to use the Fix D2V tool to repair the stream. Refer to the DGIndex Users Manual for details." error what comes up every several dvd what i encode. (independend which dvd) ive googled about that and saw that there are also some users who have the same problem but i couldnt find any solution or explanation for it.

5. i dont know why or how it comes but i ve got a strange problem when joining. i joined "African Queen - 1951" by using audacity for joining the two mp3s in vbr and virtualdubmod for joining video and finally wanted to use autogk to reencode it to a 700mb file but even though there are two mp3 streams (Audio 1: 127 Kbps MPEG-1/2 L3 2ch; Audio 2: 129 Kbps VBR MP3) autogk says: "EXCEPTION: Unsupported audio type." (before "Demuxing audio.")

i hope i didnt miss anything, if i recall something ill edit this post... im curious for your answers.

regards, chris

[nic2k4]

1. from his dvd collection ive got about 10 where i have strange problems to copy them with dvd decrypter or dvdfab. yes, i tried also ripit4me and dvdshrink. i use four different dvd drives, one of them is a nec ND-3540A with Riplock+RPC1 patched firmware. i dont know much about copying so ask me for details i should provide... partially they end up loading forever in explorer when inserted so it doesnt make sense to open up any dvd-copy app cause i cant do anything else than take them out again. i dont know how to get these on harddisk to encode with autogk...

Don't know for sure, I've had that problem and just switched drive and it worked. Some DVD's have tracks for playing on PC's. Sometimes they auto install software and what not. Try putting the disc in and pushing the right SHIFT key until the disc is done loading.

2. there are also some movies split on two dvds like "Dances with Wolves - 1990" or "Mutiny on the Bounty - 1962".
i have to copy and encode each dvd to join them together by hand and then reencode with autogk. but this reencode process ends in a wrong (larger; about 20-100mb more) predefined output size...

I've done that with Once Upon a Time in America. The only way I got it to work was to join the two DVDs in DVD format using NVE.

3. predefined output size works in 99% of all cases and i dont understand why it creates from "African Queen - 1951" a 703mb file, from "Just Visiting - 2001" a 713mb file, from "Open Water I - 2003" a 725mb file.
i copied the dvd in different ways and encoded even with mp3 vbr 96kbps but output is even larger than before.

That happens when you use VBR for audio.

4. there is this strange "A field order transition was detected. You may need to use the Fix D2V tool to repair the stream. Refer to the DGIndex Users Manual for details." error what comes up every several dvd what i encode. (independend which dvd) ive googled about that and saw that there are also some users who have the same problem but i couldnt find any solution or explanation for it.

DGIndex is supplied with AutoGK, look in the folder. Create a shortcut for it and out it somewhere convenient. In DGIndex click the tools menu and click fix D2V, done. Do that before clicking OK when the message appears.

5. i dont know why or how it comes but i ve got a strange problem when joining. i joined "African Queen - 1951" by using audacity for joining the two mp3s in vbr and Virtualdubmod for joining video and finally wanted to use autogk to reencode it to a 700mb file but even though there are two mp3 streams (Audio 1: 127 Kbps MPEG-1/2 L3 2ch; Audio 2: 129 Kbps VBR MP3) autogk says: "EXCEPTION: Unsupported audio type." (before "Demuxing audio.")

Refer to answer 2

[manono]

1. The DVD is probably scratched. DVD-ROMs are much more sensitive to that sort of thing than are standalones.
2. Join them before sending to AutoGK. Number the VOBs of the 2 halves consecutively and then put them in the same folder. Depending on how the original DVDs were done, there's a chance the 2nd half of the movie may be out of synch. Never know till you try, but sometimes there's an extra cell appended to the end of part 1, one that might say "Intermission", or "Put in the 2nd DVD", or somesuch, and you should remove that during the decrypting process when decrypting using DVD Decrypter in IFO Mode (as you should always be doing unless it's a newer DVD with newer copy protection). Also, you'll then have to open the VOBs and not the IFO, meaning no subs. If you need subs and are "burning" them into the video, extract the subs yourself in advance and join them. Then use the CTRL-F8 trick to get them into the movie.
3. Getting the wrong size often results from installing a newer XviD over an older one without first uninstalling the older one. Or by using an older XviD with an older AutoGK, which also caused the problem. See 4.
4. That problem was solved a long time ago. Update your AutoGK and the DGIndex supplied with it. This time uninstall XviD before then reinstalling the latest ver. 2.48 AutoGK.
5. I don't understand what you're saying. I don't know why you'd even consider joining 2 already encoded AVIs and then reencoding them yet again. Unless you don't care about the quality of what you're giving your father. It's not even a requirement for this Archos thing that they all be 700 MB, is it? Anyway, if you insist on doing that, you could always encode just the video, allowing room for the audio afterwards, and mux the video and audio yourself.

3. predefined output size works in 99% of all cases and i dont understand why it creates from "African Queen - 1951" a 703mb file, from "Just Visiting - 2001" a 713mb file, from "Open Water I - 2003" a 725mb file.
i copied the dvd in different ways and encoded even with mp3 vbr 96kbps but output is even larger than before.

That happens when you use VBR for audio.

Not true. Getting oversized results has nothing to do with the use of VBR audio. However, if he plans on joining 2 AVIs later on, it'll be easier to do if he uses CBR encoding